This invention relates generally to a sheath knife having detachable sharpening member handles for use in sharpening the blade of the knife.
The edge of a knife blade must be sharp in order to optimize its cutting performance. Accordingly, during manufacture, knife blades typically have their edges ground to a sharp cutting edge. Abrasive sharpening stones or belts would generally be used to perform this sharpening process so that when the knife is purchased by the user, the user receives a knife with a sharp cutting edge.
However, as the blade edge is used for cutting, the edge repeatedly encounters abrasive surfaces in the materials being cut, which, in time, dulls the edge of the blade, thereby reducing the blade's effectiveness. This requires the user to again sharpen the blade to restore the original edge.
Since sharpening can be a time-consuming, tedious process requiring special sharpening stones or other sharpening media, the sharpening procedure is often neglected by the consumer either because of the perceived time-consuming nature of sharpening the blade, or by the hesitancy in their ability to actually sharpen the blade. Thus the blade, once it is dull, may rarely be re-sharpened. Therefore, it may not be sharp when there is a significant need to cut something with the blade. In particular, this need could arise in the field when a hunter, hiker, worker, etc. is outdoors, away from sharpening equipment.
Various devices have been patented for sharpening knives. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,359,448, issued to Stodder, discloses a knife having removable handle members which allow access to a sharpening stone carried within an opening provided in the shank of the knife blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 407,055, issued to Brede; U.S. Pat. No. 848,251, issued to Killian; U.S. Pat. No. 916,630, issued to Timmons; U.S. Pat. No. 927,532, issued to Heissenberger; U.S. Pat. No. 1,299,173, issued to Grey; U.S. Pat. No. 1,627,689, issued to Culver; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,270,074, issued to Miller, and British patent No. 5,785, issued to Watkins, et al., each disclose folding knives having sharpening devices.
While the foregoing designs are known, there still exists a need for an easy-to-carry and use sharpening system which provides for both coarse and fine sharpening of a knife blade in the field.